the black China hand

But in China, where sex is still a taboo subject and pornography is outlawed by the ruling Communist Party, the images are not only highly provocative but perhaps the latest sign that sex and sexuality are infiltrating the mainstream media. (free registration is required)

The funny thing about articles like this are that they just aren’t well researched. To say sex is taboo in China is a misnomer. Besides the obvious 1.3 billion (and counting) population that begs to differ…sex has certainly been a part of Chinese pop culture at least way back to the Jin Pingmei. More recent, and I’m talking about as recent as 1994, the major cities that I went to had more then their share of adult health shops (some just next door to middle and high schools). Indeed, the fact of the matter is that sex is and always has been an important part of Chinese life. The only difference now is that the powers that be have finally found (and what the West has always known) that sex sells and following after the Western lead, those same powers that be are out to make a hefty profit on what has always been albeit less “in your face” a part of Chinese life.